


Holding your small hand (that's prettier than the ocean)

by mikusgirlfriend



Series: The love story of Mark Lee and... an alien? [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Sex, Alien/Human Relationships, Aliens, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Consentacles, Egg Laying, Eggpreg, Eggs, Falling In Love, First Meetings, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Human/Monster Romance, M/M, Mark Lee (NCT)-centric, Miscarriage, Monsters, Mpreg, Non-Human Genitalia, Other, Oviposition, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Pregnancy, Smut, Soulmates, Tentacle Sex, Tentacles, There's A Tag For That, Weird Fluff, kind of, pregnancy loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-22 21:20:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23000584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikusgirlfriend/pseuds/mikusgirlfriend
Summary: Mark opened his eyes again, looking up at the thing. He saw the way the tentacles loftily curled and uncurled, a withering mass with one mind, and he swallowed. There was still apprehension swirling inside of him, but he knew that the thing wasn’t out to hurt him.“Hi” he breathed out, heart pounding so hard that he swore he could hear his ribs crack.A tentacle slithered out from the cluster and made its way towards him, tentatively inching closer to his hand. The black appendage slowly slid over Mark’s palm, a shudder running through the human at the sensation. The limb was smoother than he could have imagined, slick and damp as it wandered across his skin, weaving through his fingers in a handshake of sorts.orMy contribution to the NCTentacle community
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Mark Lee/Tentacles
Series: The love story of Mark Lee and... an alien? [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1734139
Comments: 42
Kudos: 161





	Holding your small hand (that's prettier than the ocean)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [orca_mandaeru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orca_mandaeru/gifts), [Setting_Out_Stars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setting_Out_Stars/gifts).
  * Inspired by [the good life](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18677749) by [orca_mandaeru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orca_mandaeru/pseuds/orca_mandaeru). 



> I finished this a while ago but procrastinated uploading it because I'm not sure it's good enough. I'm very anxious to post this because it's my first NCT fic, and my first finished tentacle fic. 
> 
> IMPORTANT NOTE: one of the characters doesn't have a gender since they're an alien and I would have felt weird giving them a fixed, human gender. To solve this I switch pronouns between paragraphs. It might seem a little confusing, but it was what I found worked best. So that's why one character is called both her, him, they and it.
> 
> This work is dedicated to orca_mandaeru who's fic "the good life" inspired this one heavily. Head over there after you've read this! Also dedicated to bloodred_ander for encouraging me to finish this, thank you
> 
> Title from NCT 127's "Paradise"

For as long as Mark Lee could remember, he’d always felt drawn to the ocean. 

His earliest childhood memories all involved the ocean in some way, and he’d always felt strangely connected to it. While others liked to visit the beach to enjoy themselves, Mark liked to visit the beach because it made him feel complete. 

It was curious to him why he felt that way because he wasn’t a big swimmer. He had nothing against it, but the activity was not that appealing to him. It wasn’t like he’d ever visit a pool for the sole purpose of swimming a few lapses. Neither was it the sunbathing that drew him in; lying still for a long period of time made ants crawl beneath his skin, and had him squirming in boredom. 

No there was something else that constantly seemed to be pulling his soul towards the big blue. Something within the very core of his being that constantly longed for an endless horizon, something that was only pleased when he felt the cool waves crash over his heated skin. It was like he had his own sea inside of him, and the surface of those stormy waters only ever was calm when he could feel the sand between his toes.

If anyone in his family or friend group noticed it, they never breathed a word to him about it. Mark Lee’s fascination for the salty oceans, the deep blue and the creatures it was home to, was either something one through an unspoken agreement didn’t talk about, or it was simply a little secret of his. 

What wasn’t so much of a secret though was that whenever Mark got stressed he liked to visit the ocean. Sometimes in the summers he went with his friends as a tiny vacation, and they spent an entire day chasing each other across the sand, eating ice cream, swimming together. But in the spring, winter and fall he went by himself, few of his acquaintances interested in visiting the beach when the waters were steel grey and cold. 

Today was one of those days. 

The entire month Mark had felt an unusually strong need to see, feel, taste the ocean, his slight obsession boiling to the point where it was almost impossible to ignore. Whenever he had a shower, washed his hands, drank water, he’d think of the sea, and a fierce ache of longing would pierce his heart like a sabre. It was strange, but Mark didn’t question it. The need was so primitive that he was sure he wouldn’t find an answer if he searched within himself. 

It had been after his last final that his patience had finally snapped and he had jumped into his car, skin burning and itching with the deepest, most peculiar desire to feel the chill water caress his aching limbs.

Mark didn’t have any music on in the car as he drove, too tense and nervous to break the silence with an upbeat kpop song, or any type of music for that matter. The only sound that could be heard inside the small car was the rhythmical tapping or Mark’s fingers drumming against the steering wheel.

Maybe it was the palpable nervousness, but when he saw the road exit towards the local beach, he didn’t change direction but kept on driving. He frowned; he had driven this road a billion times, yet he hadn’t even flinched when he saw the exit. He’d just sped right past it, and for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to turn around. His body was locked in position, and he kept driving 

As Mark continued his journey he found himself keeping up the pattern of not following the usual road to the nearest beach, but a different way he had never taken before. He surprised himself, steering onto smaller and smaller roads, taking turns he’d never taken before. It was as if his hands were steering him through muscle memory rather than conscious decisions, but that couldn’t be the case since Mark wasn’t familiar with this path at all. In fact, he had no clue where he was going, or even what direction he was going in. It was like he had stopped thinking and just let his hands steer the car in whatever direction felt right, changing directions whenever he felt like it. Everything was left to chance, and yet Mark felt like he was taking the right way. 

Somehow, he wasn’t surprised in the slightest when he a few hours later arrived at a small, deserted beach. It was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by thick, dark forests and not a living soul was in sight. The sand looked grainy and dark, not the kind tourists like to spread their towels on, and the sea itself was like molten pewter beneath the cloudy skies.

Mark stepped out of the car and shoved his hands into his pockets before he began walking towards the water. The winds were pulling at his clothes, causing his newly bleached hair to whip around his face, and his eyes watered. The beach was eerily quiet, no seagulls or other animals audible as Mark neared the shoreline, watching how the waves washed over the bearish sand. Chunks of dark green seaweed had been washed up and dried out, and they crunched under Mark’s shoes for every step he took. 

Mark narrowed his eyes, looking out at the sea. 

A stone’s throw from the beach, out where the waves were slightly bigger, Mark could see black cliffs rising sharp and slightly ominous from the surface, a temple built by mother nature herself. It was almost like the tip of a tiny underwater mountain, a big and majestical rock that stood like a fang in the midst of the storming sea. 

Mark watched it in awe, observing its beauty.The cliffs were sleek and dark, almost black, and so pointy they could have been forged by the most skilled of blacksmiths. 

Every cell in his body seemed to be screaming at him that he needed to get to that cliff right now. The pull that had taken him to this deserted beach was now urging him to get out in the water and to the rock. So he did the only sensible thing: he started undressing. 

First off were his sneakers and socks, followed by his pants. Sand immediately invaded the space between his toes and Mark wriggled them, giggling silently at the sensation. Next the belt followed, clinking quietly when it made contact with the ground, and Mark shivered violently in the cold air as he pulled his pants down, skin breaking out in goosebumps. His nipples hardened into pebbles as he wrestled his shirt off, the buds reacting to the chill air. His watch wasn’t waterproof so he loosened it from his wrist, hiding the expensive thing under his folded pants. It was mainly out of habit, since he didn’t actually think someone would walk by while he was out swimming. 

_ Swimming _ , he nervously thought as he dipped his toes in the water, shivering at the icy temperature. The sea was relatively calm today, and there probably weren’t any dangerous underwater currents, but the water was very cold and Mark wasn’t in the mood to freeze to death today. 

The whole affair was dangerous and stupid, but the pull from the cliffs was like a hook buried deep in his flesh and he couldn’t deny the need to swim out to the big rocks. 

Taking a deep breath to mentally prepare himself, Mark waded out into the water. The moment the waves washed over his calves it was like an electric shock ran through his brain, the water so ice cold that any and all thoughts evaporated into thin air. His skin burned, muscles shaking before the water level had risen above his knees and Mark gasped out loud. It felt like he was being bitten, chewed by invisible rows of razor sharp fangs. 

But Mark grit his teeth and kept walking. He didn’t know why it was so important to get out to the cliff in the middle of the water, but he didn’t question it. He just knew that out there, hiding behind the black stone, was something very very important. Something that had been calling for him the entire month, the reason he’d been so restless and been unable to shake off the thoughts of the sea. 

When the sea level got so deep that Mark no longer could stand up he began the task of swimming, which soon turned out to be more complicated than he’d thought; the cold water made his muscles stiff, and his boxers (the only piece of clothing he’d kept on) flopped weirdly around his legs with every kick. It was difficult, and tiring, and Mark found himself exhausted after just a few metres. 

His limbs felt heavy, paddling through the water in slow motion, and he gulped down air in big breaths, the oxygen stinging in his lungs. Mark felt tears gather on his lashes as he struggled to stay above the surface, the cliffs nearing in what seemed like slow motion. 

When his hand finally touched the sharp rocks after what felt like hours, he couldn’t feel it. He could only see his hand grasp the black stone as he crawled up on it, towards the dark and ominous opening that was now visible in the cliff.

It was a terrible idea, almost worse than plunging into the icy waters all alone, but the cave-like tear in the stone had an almost nauseatingly strong pull, the same kind of pull that had urged him to the beach and out in the waters. It was so strong now that Mark could almost touch it, almost taste it in the air, almost feel the way it curled around the winds. Mark felt it, felt that whatever he was looking for, whatever he’d been looking for his entire life, was in that cave.

That small cave, that looked just big enough for him to squeeze into.

“This is a terrible idea” Mark muttered to himself as he climbed into the opening, stumbling over his steps as the cold air whipped his wet skin, hair and boxers plastered to him. He was so cold that he was in physical pain, his body weak and spent, and something told him that he was going to die like this if a miracle didn’t happen. But the enchantment he was under was dragging him towards what Mark guessed was the source, and he couldn’t care less about his body temperature when he was close to the part of him that’d been calling out to him his entire life. 

The inside of the cave was pitch black, and Mark had to feel his way forward as good as he could, immensely careful so he wouldn’t hurt himself on the sharp rocks. Gravel and cliffs dug into his palms as he blindly stumbled forward, shaking and trembling. His boxers and hair were slicked to his body and his jaws clattered. 

Mark could feel it so clearly now. Whatever had been calling for him, whatever had been waiting for him, was in the cave with him. The hook in his flesh was pulling, his soul burning and churning with the need to just know. Know who was calling for him, know what he was looking for. 

Suddenly, a few metres away, something lit up. 

Mark instinctively blinked, temporarily blinded even though the light was faint. He stared, narrowing his eyes as if it would help him figure out what the hell he was looking at. Slowly, he crept closer. 

It was round, he observed as he neared it, not sphere-shaped but close to it. The thing was fluorescent, the soft green glow it emitted quite obviously not a reflection. Slowly Mark’s eyes got used to the light and he stared at it in awe, silently wondering what it was. Mark had heard of bioluminescent fungi, but this didn’t look like it. It looked rounder, glossier, and…    
Mark’s breath hitched.

Alive.

The thing was moving.

Another one popped up next to it, this one slightly bigger and tinged red in its hue. And then another one, a luminous purple ball. And another one, and another one. Little sources of light spread all over the cave and with a shiver, Mark realised what they were; eyes. Hundreds and thousands of glowing eyes, illuminating the wet cave. 

With this new source of light Mark could suddenly see things that had previously been hidden in the dark, and he felt his soul leave his body at the sight in front of him.

It couldn’t be described as anything but a monster.

Huge, with a swollen, deep purple almost black body that was covered in a sheen of something slick. A myriad of tentacles sprouted from it, wafting lazily in the air. Some were thin and long, endings no thicker than Mark’s fingers, and some were gigantic, as big as his thighs. The tentacles were darker than the almost shapeless body, the appendages black and smooth, lined with ghoulishly pale suction cups. 

The glowing eyes weren’t collected in something that could be described as a face, but rather, they were scattered all over the body. It had a certain resemblance to an octopus, but it was clear that this was not some kind of yet-to-be-discovered deep-sea fish. No this creature was something else, and when it opened its mouth to reveal a set of sharp fangs, some as long as Mark’s arm, Mark understood that this thing was one of a kind.

Mark couldn’t breathe.

He was so shocked, feeling his entire worldview crumbling to pieces at the sight of this… this alien. It looked terrifying, undoubtedly capable of killing Mark with a single slash of its long teeth. It was unclear and peculiar, a shapeless wriggling mass of tentacles and glowing eyes. 

Mark stared at it, trying to calm down his heart that was currently threatening to beat out of his chest. He couldn’t breathe, blood roaring in his ears. The thing looked absolutely terrifying, but he couldn’t bring himself to run away. He was rooted in place, rooted to the spot. 

Then, Mark felt it. 

In the corner of his mind he felt something expand, a presence that nudged his own. Mark gasped, falling backwards and promptly landing on his butt. Pain shot up like a n arrow through his buttocks, but he didn’t register it, too busy marvelling at the strange sensation of having someone else’s mind press against his own. 

It was like he could vaguely sense thoughts that weren’t his own, a warm metaphysical body touching his subconscious. Mark closed his eyes and breathed heavily, trying to not get overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of sharing his thinking space with another person. Or well, creature. It had to be this thing in front of him.

Mark opened his eyes again, looking up at the thing. He saw the way the tentacles loftily curled and uncurled, a withering mass with one mind, and he swallowed. There was still apprehension and intimidation swirling inside of him, but he had felt the creature’s conscious and he knew that the thing wasn’t out to hurt him. He also couldn’t deny the surreal sense of calm he was filled with; there was no pull, no desire, no waves that crashed onto an exhausted shore. Mark felt, for the first time in his life, like everything had settled. 

He tried not to think about the way he hadn’t felt anything penetrate his mind, just how an already existing presence had exploded from an unvisited corner of his mind until he could comprehend it. It was too much, too difficult to grasp just yet.

Taking a shaky breath, Mark swallowed his anxiety and fluttering butterflies, and raised a hand. It was the universal sign of peace, a tiny bridge of flesh to cross the river of estrangement. 

“Hi” he breathed out, heart pounding so hard that he swore he could hear his ribs crack. He was still on the floor and he was glad he was, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle the interaction without his knees giving out. 

A tentacle slithered out from the cluster and made its way towards him, tentatively inching closer to his hand. It’s just as nervous as I am, Mark realised with a jolt, the realisation making a comfortable warmth spread through his body. 

The black appendage slowly slid over Mark’s palm, a shudder running through the human at the sensation. The limb was smoother than he could have imagined, slick and damp as it wandered across his skin, weaving through his fingers in a form of handshake. 

Mark laughed breathlessly, staring at their conjoined hands in awe. 

It was sosurreal, so strange.

The other consciousness in his mind buzzed quietly and a lump formed in the human’s throat. Whatever the creature was, their connection was kind of beautiful. Mark had no idea what they wanted to do to him, but he liked the way they were connected not only in soul but also physically. He couldn’t explain it but it was so palpable, the connection they shared. 

This is not a coincidence, Mark thought dizzily. This was meant to be. It was so clear, so obvious. 

“W-what’s your name?” Mark stuttered, butterflies speeding up as another tentacle touched his wrist before curling around it. The suction cups tickled his skin softly, the touch warm and welcome after the freezing bath he took earlier. 

The creature nudged Mark’s subconscious and he closed his eyes, trying to focus on the bond they had. No words were exchanged, just faint sounds and feelings, images and visualisations. 

Mark’s brows knitted together as he tried to feel his way through the connection, tried to interpret the pulsating waves of subconscious communication. 

“Ghourbirh?” Mark managed to make out, eyes wide and staring at the thing again. The name was more like a string of random sounds, and Mark just barely managed to pronounce them, but he was certain that he got it right. There was something so right about it, about the way Mark’s mouth formed around the word, the way the syllables rolled off his tongue, albeit choppy and insecure.

Mark was confirmed through the bond, a vibration humming against his mind and making the hairs on his body stand up. 

“Ghourbirh” he repeated quietly. “I’m Mark”

Cautiously, Mark nudged Ghourbirh’s mind, trying to somehow visualise his name. He thought about the way it sounds, he thought about himself. Imagined his character, his mindset, his energy, and attached it to the one syllable that, to him, carried more meaning than any other.

Mark thought that they must understand, because he felt a little pulsation back, a mental movement that reminded Mark of the way his name sounded when it rolled off a human tongue. 

Swallowing down the lump in his throat, Mark clasped the tentacle in his hand. 

“How… what are we?” he whispered, his voice echoing inside of the big cave. Mark knew that they were something, something beyond just human and creature. He had only just met Ghourbirh, but it felt like they had known each other for a long, long time. There was a sense of comfort being with the monster, and this puzzled Mark greatly since he was usually quite an awkward guy. He didn’t blend well with people the first few times he met them, and had a hard time connecting to people beyond the shallow pleasantries.

With Ghourbirh, it was different.    
Even though the being was unlike anything he’d ever seen, even though they couldn’t verbally communicate, he felt strongly for it. The presence in his mind, the bond he could feel between their souls… 

It was all part of something more, something bigger than just the two of them. 

At Mark’s question, the bond flooded with information. Ghourbirh visualised and presented images, thoughts and feelings, fragments of the thing’s life bleeding into Mark until he became lightheaded from the amount of information he had to process at once. 

Ghourbirh had lived a long life, roaming the dark unexplored corners of the earth while waiting for their mate. Waiting, resting, knowing that someday, in some living form, a piece of their soul would be reborn and whoever that soulmate was, they’d return to Ghourbirh. 

19 years ago, Ghourbirh had felt their mate’s arrival to earth. They had felt that the other piece of their soul had finally returned to this reality, and they had called out to them ever since. 

Mark felt like crying.

After 19 years of never feeling anything beyond a tiny crush, he finally felt the rush of love that the books and the movies talked about. It welled up in him, shapeless, nameless, and filled him to the brim. He tried to project it into the bond, the longing he’d felt for the ocean ever since he was little, the constant need to feel the waves wash over his feet, and how he’d now realised that it had ever been the ocean he wanted in the first place; it had been Ghourbirh. 

The serenity inside made so much more sense now, the sense of belonging that the monster filled Mark with. So many emotions whirled inside of Mark, happiness, hysteria, disbelief, blind trust, but in the middle of that stormy sea Ghourbirh’s calm rose like a mountain, a foundation for Mark to cling to.

The world blurred around Mark as tears filled his eyes and he sobbed, emotionally shaken to his core. Something damp touched his cheek and nearly dislocated his head with the force of its swipe and he hiccuped a wet giggle at Ghourbirh trying to dry his tears. How cute was that?

“S-so” Mark managed to choke out once he had somewhat calmed down. “What now?”

Something dark purple flashed in the bond; slick, dripping appendages surging forward, a thick, sugary sweet sensation spreading like honey in his mouth… and then images, images of Mark with a swollen belly, skin stretched taut over a sizeable bump… 

Mark gasped sharply as he was filled with a phantom feeling of something something being inside of him, something small and alive. A tiny seed deep within. He clutched his stomach, half expecting it to be bulging, only for him to realise that it had merely been a visualisation of a possible future. His stomach was as flat as before, the feeling of something growing inside subsiding as the illusion broke. 

Mark felt his blood boiling. Never before in his life had he wanted something as badly as he wanted this. Never before had he felt such a desperate physical ache for something. It wasn’t like an impulse to buy something nice, or like an addict longing for their next high; it ran deep in his bones, coursing through his system, a steady instinct that told him he needed this or he was going to die.

He looked up at Ghourbirh, trying to make eye contact with each and every one of its glowing eyes at once.

“Please” he gurgled out, barely able to breathe. “I want it, now. G-give it to me, please. I need it, _God_ _I need it”_

Mark didn’t know if Ghourbirh could understand his words, or if she felt his desire through the soulbond, but he didn’t think much of it because suddenly there were tentacles picking him up. They wrapped themselves around his arms and legs, lifting him as easily as a rag doll form the floor. Mark was happy something held him up, because the warmth of Ghourbirh’s damp skin combined with the pressure from the suction cups made his knees weaken.

Her touch was everywhere, and Mark felt overheated, oversensitive. It was intense, nothing like the awkward drunken blowjobs he’d received at parties, and definitely nothing like the stilted sex he’d had with his ex girlfriend. The way Ghourbirh touched him set every nerve in his body ablaze, had his veins crackling like fireworks. He burned with every caress, panting at every movement the other creature made. 

Two tentacles wandered across his front and the human flushed as it became even more apparent what was about to happen. He wanted it, he wanted it so much that it felt like he was going to die if Ghourbirh didn’t get inside of him right now. 

Ghourbirh’s tentacles were warm and slid over Mark’s chest slowly, tentatively, as if they were unsure of how human anatomy worked in general. Mark whimpered as they brushed pas his nipples, and Ghourbirh seemed to take note of this, caressing the sensitive buds with more precise movements.    
Mark bit his lips, feeling his cock twitch in his boxers. Then suddenly, suction cups were applying a hint of pressure, and he lost his mind. 

“Please” he wheezed. “Please… G-Ghourbirh, I…”

Ghourbirh seemed to somewhat understand Mark’s urgency. The appendages that were holding him up high in the air pulled him closer to Ghourbirh’s body, so close that Mark could feel the gaze of every eye that was on him. It made him blush even darker as Ghourbirh tore the fabric of his boxers to shreds, leaving him bare for the monster to see. 

More tentacles joined the ones that were already holding him up and touching his now naked skin, and Mark had lost count of how many they were. They became a mass, sliding over his body and leaving trails of slick behind. 

One limb prodded at Mark’s lips and he let them fall open without a single trace of hesitation. It softly invaded his mouth, feeling its way forward, twitching at the wet heat of Mark’s tongue. It should revolt and repulse Mark, the hesitance a clear reminder that Ghourbirh wasn’t human and didn’t know how mumans work, but it didn’t. Mark just moaned gratefully at the earthy, musky taste of Ghourbirh’s oily slick, and tried to fit as much of the strong muscle into his mouth as he could. 

One tentacle that had been resting on his lower back started sliding down, gently dipping into Mark’s crack. 

Mark choked a little on the appendage in his mouth as he tried to eagerly suck it while at the same time pushing back against the one that was nearing his ass. Mark felt it graze his hole and he sighed, unsure of whether to close his eyes or enjoy the visual of his body wrapped up in Ghourbirh’s tentacles. 

Mark had never had a thing for tentacles before, always feeling slightly uncomfortable when his half-friend Yuta overshared about the hentai videos he liked to watch. The concept had always been foreign to him, the idea of viewing tentacles as something erotic almost appalling. 

But now, Mark understood how wrong he’d been; there was something beautiful, almost elegant, about the way the tentacles curled and uncurled, about the way they constantly moved around, brushing against every part of his body. They were erotic in an alien way, making flames erupt in Mark’s belly with every movement and touch. It made him squirm, unable to fully comprehend the amount of attention that was being paid to him… 

The slim tip of a tentacle breached his hole and he sucked in a breath through his nose at the intrusion. Ghourbirh’s slick acted as a natural lubricant so it didn’t exactly hurt, but it had been a while since Mark had done anything like this to himself and the stretch was a little uncomfortable. 

Mark moaned and whimpered, trying to relax in Ghourbirh’s embrace. It felt vastly different from when Mark played with himself; the tentacle moved freely inside of him, soft and wriggling, completely unlike stiff human fingers. The glide was smooth, and Mark felt tears gather on his lashes as a suction cup latched onto his walls. 

He spasmed at the sensation, mewling as another tentacle slid into his mouth next to the first one. His jaws were aching by now, but the ache was pleasant. It was a steady reminder that he was making his mate feel good, and his pride overrode the ache every time the tentacles shuddered against his tongue. 

Mark tried to blink away his tears, tried to focus on his mate through the haze of pleasure. All of Ghourbirh’s attention was focused on Mark, and it made him feel small. Vulnerable, cared for. She was so gigantic, and every single one of his colourful eyes was directed at Mark’s body. 

Slowly, sensually, the tentacle fucked Mark deeper and deeper, gradually loosening his rim until yet another tentacle could slip right in. Small bursts of white-hot pleasure erupted every time Ghourbirh brushed against a sensitive spot inside of Mark, and Mark could feel his climax rapidly approaching. Mark sucked harshly, with more purpose, at the tentacles in his mouth and they twitched before releasing little spurts of the lube-like liquid they were covered in. Mark choked on it, trying to swallow down as much as possible. 

It slid down his throat, thick like honey, and settled at the pit of his stomach. The idea of gulping down Ghourbirh’s goo like this, like it was the most delicious wine, was what finally sent Mark over the edge.

His cries were muffled as his cock (that had been standing hard and flushed for what felt like hours) spurted thin milky cum onto the cave floor. The pleasure rushed through his body like a wave of molten lava, and he seized up, eyes closing and mouth dropping open and slack around the moving appendages. 

Ghourbirh didn’t falter in her rhythm, leaving Mark squirming from oversensitivity. 

Clumsily, he nudged the soulbond, urging Ghourbirh to pull out from his mouth. 

“G-Ghourbirh” he gasped, voice raspy from how abused his throat had been. “I’m… I’m ready. Please breed me, I need it, please”

Mark didn’t realise he was crying until Ghourbirh for the second time that night tried to dry his tears. This time, she was gentler, and the tears were replaced with slick in no time. 

Mark felt that he should experience some sort of apprehension or second thoughts when a tentacle bigger and blunter than the other snaked up from the mess of moving limbs beneath him, but he only felt excitement. It was the special kind of excitement, the one that burns your skin and makes your heart thrum in your chest. 

The tentacles in his ass pulled out, but before Mark even had the time to whine about the loss, the thicker one was nudging his puffy rim. He shivered, the skin of his body curling as he looked down. The tentacle prodding at his entrance was thicker than the earlier ones and Mark felt anticipation rush through him. Soon, that thing would be inside of him.

Slowly, the head of the tentacle-dick pushed past his rim, stretching out until it was stinging and burning. Mark sucked in air and screwed his eyes shut, a pitiful whine spilling from his lips as he tried not to combust. He felt too much, too much, too much. He felt like he was being split apart, there was so much pain coursing through him in waves, but he still wanted more. There was no pleasure in the act itself, but rather the knowledge that at this point the two of them were one. At this moment, Mark and his mate were tied together in the most intimate way, and the satisfaction of this made Mark disregard the pain and wish for more.

A small tentacle, slimmer than the other ones, rose up to stroke the hair out of Mark’s forehead, wiping the sweat off. A suction cup sucked gently at his temple, the action an obvious mimic of a kiss. 

For a moment Mark just rested, trying to breathe in and out until the pain faded at least somewhat. The tentacle at Mark’s temple sucked more firmly, and suddenly the pain was gone. Mark opened his eyes, confused when all he felt was a painless stretch and pressure from inside. The stretch was coupled with the pleasure of Ghourbirh brushing his most intimate places, but the burn was completely gone. 

“D-did you take the pain away?” he panted, drool running down the corners of his mouth. Mark was gone, so gone, lost in this moment of burning love. 

An affirmative nod resounded within the bond and Mark smiled, affection for Ghourbirh surging through him like a tidal wave. 

“You can move now” Mark wheezed out, becoming increasingly confident in his ability to communicate through the bond by forming the sentence verbally at first.

Slowly, Ghourbirh sank deeper into Mark, filling the boy up and rubbing against all his most special spots. A warm wetness filled Mark and he realised the tentacle must’ve released another glob of slick. Taking it as a sign of Ghourbirh’s pleasure, Mark proudly smiled to himself.

Ghourbirh dragged out before pushing inside again, pleasure exploding at the pit of Mark’s stomach as the tentacle hit his prostate dead on. He screamed out loud, toes curling as the fire in his stomach grew bigger, hotter, with every stroke and caress of his walls. 

There was something hanging heavy in the air, a promise that was growing with every rapid thrust. Mark swore he could feel it, feel the impending promise of something greater than just the two of them. 

He reached blindly for the appendage that was stroking his forehead, gliding through his hair. 

“Do it” he whispered hoarsely, clutching to Ghourbirh to steady himself. “Do it now, please I’m… I’m ready”

Almost as if Ghourbirh had been waiting for one last verbal permission, the creature stilled. A part of Mark worried that Ghourbirh would pull out, that he had been unable satisfy her, but a bigger part of him was calm, sure that that was not the case. 

He felt Ghourbirh’s cock swell at the base, and he gasped faintly as his hole stretched even further to accommodate to this new size. Faintly, Mark thought that he was never going to have a tight ass again. He was always going to be a little loose from this, a little stretched from Ghourbirh’s cock. It was a thought that weirdly turned him on when maybe it should disgust or disturb him instead. 

Even with Ghourbirh taking the pain away the feeling of being split apart was fairly uncomfortable and Mark sighed in relief as the stretch suddenly stopped quite abruptly, as if whatever had been pushing into him popped past his rim. Mark felt this something lodge itself inside of him, fill him up like nothing ever had before. Something soft and slimy at the side of a golf ball. 

Realisation hit him slowly because of the sex-haze he was in but when it did it hit him like a bus; it was an egg. 

Ghourbirh wasn’t cumming inside of Mark, they were laying eggs. 

Mark moaned so loudly that he was sure people on the other side of the ocean could hear it. 

“Oh my god” he mewled as his rim started stretching at yet another bulge. Another egg. Just like with tentacles, Mark had never pinned himself as a fan of oviposition, but now that he watched the bulge of an egg move through Ghourbirh’s cock and up towards his hole he wanted to sob with how much he wanted. The desire set him ablaze, the molten need to have those eggs inside of him, to carry them in his stomach until they hatched. Oh his stomach, it was going to be so deformed after this, so swollen and bloated…

Mark’s jaw fell slack as another egg popped inside of him, jostling the first one so it pressed right up against his prostate. Wailing brokenly, Mark came a second time, his cock only twitching and releasing a few pitiful globs of cum. Oversensitive and delirious but still wanting more, Mark squirmed in Ghourbirh’s hold, breathing heavily as more eggs were slowly pumped into him, filling him up. 

Sweat ran down Mark temples when, an hour later, the eighth and final egg had settled inside of him. Warm liquid flooded him (he didn’t know if it was slick or cum) and he gurgled something nonsensical at the sensation. 

Ghourbirh’s dick slipped out, but before Mark could panic about losing their future children one of Ghourbirh’s tentacles sunk in, plugging up Mark and ensuring that no cum or eggs ran back out. 

Mark was tired, more exhausted than ever before (both mentally and physically), and his entire body ached where he hung lifeless in Ghourbirh’s arms. But despite all of this, Mark felt something inside of him; it wasn’t a movement as much as an instinct, a steady knowledge that something had taken root inside of him. He knew it, he could feel it. He could feel the warmth of the eggs, could feel the mental bond between him and Ghourbirh widening a little until there was an empty space that could fit someone else. 

Mark looked at his stomach, whimpering at the sight of it; it was swollen, the skin stretched taut across the little bumps that were protruding from it. It looked deformed, with the uneven bulges erasing any trace of his formerly flat belly. The sight was so erotic Mark didn’t doubt he would have gotten hard unless he’d already cum twice. 

But the sight also filled him with a warmth, a wave of unconditional love filling him at the prospect of what these tiny eggs meant. The importance they carried.

Mark could feel the seed of something alive, a living creature that he carried. The product of Mark’s bond to Ghourbirh, the result of this connection that Mark was sure would develop into deep love if only given enough time. 

Mark smiled sleepily to himself as Ghourbirh’s tentacles wrapped around him, encircling like a blanket and cradling him like a small child. 

Mark’s last thought before he fell asleep was that this would be how Ghourbirh would hold their future children; so softly and tenderly, like there was nothing or no one else in the entire world. 

Then the tip of a tentacle slipped into Mark’s mouth and he started gently suckling on it, drifting to sleep almost immediately. 

~ 

When Mark stirred awake he felt more well rested than he had in years. 

For the first time in his life, he felt energised and like he’d slept the whole night through. He felt calm and serene, a feeling so foreign that Mark first thought he was dreaming. 

He started moving, finding that his blankets were unusually hot and heavy, almost pinning him down. Frowning, Mark opened his eyes. 

He was not in his bed. 

The ceiling above his head was not a ceiling but in fact a watery blue sky, occasional clouds leisurely gliding across it. The sun was casting its weak morning glow over his face and the soft rays of light momentarily made him forget to panic over waking up outside. He basked in the sunlight for a few moments before looking down. 

He found that he was not covered by blankets but by tentacles. They were all over him, tangled around him like a warm protective armour of dark purple flesh. In daylight, they didn’t look black like they had done last night, but a very dark colour that shimmered in violet when the sun shone on them.

Last night.

Mark blushed as the memories came rushing back. He remembered it all clearly, and now that he wasn’t lost in a lustful haze he felt embarrassed at the things he had said and done. He had been absolutely delirious, and while he regretted nothing he winced a little recalling the explicit things he’d said, no  _ begged _ for. 

Noticing his mate’s awakening, Ghourbirh started moving as well, tentacles slowly slipping from Mark until he was barely covered and could move freely. Mark stretched, whining as a dull ache at the bottom of his spine made itself known. The glow from waking up such a beautiful morning was slowly starting to fade, and the harsh truths of reality were creeping towards him, chewing at the back of his mind. He relaxed again, hands folding in his lap, twitching and itching in anxiety. Sensing Mark’s discomfort, Ghourbirh reached out through the bond and wordlessly asked what was wrong. 

Mark bit his lip.

“You know” he said slowly, twitching a little at the feeling of Ghourbirh’s presence pressing against his own. It felt very different compared to yesterday, when he had been overwhelmed and muddled by their reunion. “Before we met… I used to have a whole life outside of… this. Us”

Mark vaguely gestured between the two of them. 

“It’s not like I’m going back to that now that I have you, and our children” Mark slowly explained, absentmindedly rubbing his stomach at the mention of their kids. Even with the dull mood he was in, his heart fluttered at the feeling of the bumps. “At least not for a while. And that scares me a little. I’ve lived as a part of the human society for my entire life and now… in some way it’s going to change.”   
Mark took a deep breath. 

“Maybe it doesn’t have to change as much as I think it will, but it’s still going to be different. And I’m a little worried about that”

_ Worried _

Mark jumped five feet into the air at the raspy, almost growling voice that resonated inside his skull and snapped his head towards Ghourbirh’s face so fast that something in his neck popped.

“You can speak?” he half-screamed incredulously. 

A feeling that can only be interpreted as “so-so” wafted through the bond, followed by a grunted “ _ learning _ ” that bounced through Mark’s head, feeling like a thought he hadn’t come up with himself. 

Mark beamed at his mate, forgetting his worries about life outside of human society completely as he looks at her. He was so proud of her, so proud of her already picking up what human words meant and how to use them. It was cute, not to mention romantic as fuck, and Mark lost his breath at how beautiful Ghourbirh looked in that moment, bathing in the morning sunlight at a beach that God forgot. 

I think, Mark decided to himself, that it’s going to be okay. 

A slimy tentacles slipped inside of his palm, suction cups simulating little kisses that had Mark giggling.

Very much so. 

~

Mark spent an hour or two sketching up the perfect plan, one that covered every single one of his problems. 

His parents lived in Canada, never having moved back to Korea like he did a couple of years ago, so he didn’t need to come up with an excuse for them. In the long run, years into the future, it was going to become difficult to explain his lack of partner but he’d take care of that when the day came. 

School had just finished, and Mark was hoping the kids would be born before the holidays were over. It could be imagination, but Mark already thought that his stomach felt a little bit heavier than yesterday, and he hoped that the pregnancy would be short. If not, he’d have to solve it some way.

He’d have to move out of his current apartment, since people in this area knew him. If he bumped into an acquaintance his baby bump would undeniably attract some attention. Thus, Mark decided that he would move into his family’s vacation home. It was the perfect escape; only used for family vacations (it had been a while since last time, and his parents were thinking about selling it), it was located an hour’s drive from his college, in the outskirts of a calm suburban area. And the best of all?

It lay by a beach. 

Close to the ocean, like both Mark and Ghourbirh preferred, but close enough to society that Mark could get necessities like food.

Mark worried a lot about getting there, since Ghourbirh was a huge octopus-like monster with hundreds of eyes and surely would attract some attention, but his worries were silenced by Ghourbirh who showed Mark their abilities to turn into invisible antimateria. It gave Mark a massive headache, since turning non-physical meant Ghourbirh placed most of his existence into their mental bond, but it was the only way to work if Mark wanted to move somewhere together with him. 

There was only one problem, and that was Mark’s roommate Johnny. He wasn’t Mark’s only friend but he was the only one Mark was so close to that his abrupt disappearance would raise suspicion. Maybe Johnny would even miss him. 

As soon as Mark had made his mind up properly he slid out of Ghourbirh’s embrace and started looking for his clothes, shaking the sand out of them and putting them on. To his surprise, the date on his phone told him that he had not slept for one night but two, and the device was filled with worried texts from Johnny. Mark cursed his luck and bit his lip, unsure of how to go about this. His hand immediately found its way to his stomach, rubbing himself soothingly to calm down. It was already becoming a habit whenever he was stressed. 

Ghourbirh, who was still situated a bit away on the beach, fluttered through the bond the second he noticed his mate’s distress. It made Mark smile to himself before reassuring him that he was alright. It had only been two days but Mark’s feelings for Ghourbirh’s were already deepening into a steady affection. The fast development would have scared Mark if it wasn’t for the fact that it was Ghourbirh. Ghourbirh who he had longed for his entire life, Ghourbirh who had filled the empty cavern of loneliness in his chest, Ghourbirh who he was literally destined to be with. 

The cotton soft love that bloomed in his heart at Ghourbirh’s attention to his feelings filled Mark with determination, and he swallowed his nervousness. With shaking fingers he punched in Johnny’s number, fumbling a couple of times but after a few times finally getting it right. 

His heart was beating so fast he thought he was going to be nauseous, every beep from his phone making his anxiety spike a little higher. 

After a couple of agonising moments, the other end of the line cracked and Johnny let out a groggy ‘hello?’. He sounded half drugged from sleep and Mark realised that it was only 8 in the morning on a weekend. 

“Hi” Mark said awkwardly, not sure how to go about things. 

It was quiet for a few moment before Johnny’s voice exploded, bellowing so loudly that Mark had to rip the phone away and hold it several inches from his ear. 

“ _ Mark! _ ” Johnny positively shrieked, making Mark worry about his hearing. “Where have you been man? You just disappeared yesterday and haven’t been home for two nights. I got like seriously worried but you didn’t answer any of my texts or calls so I figured you were like, dead or something”

Despite his initial nervousness Mark couldn’t help but chuckle fondly. 

“I’m serious” Johnny whined. “I thought you were lying beat up in some dark alley, or that you had been kidnapped, or gutted for your organs, or… well you get it. I was worried. Nearly called the police.”

Someone said something in the background and Johnny scoffed. 

“Chitti I love you but you clearly don’t know Mark if you think he can take care of himself” he said, voice a little distant as if he was speaking away from the phone. Mark reasoned that he probably was, since he seemed to be addressing his boyfriend Chittaphon. 

Mark cleared his throat. 

“Yeah” he began, quietly wondering how he best lied about being pregnant with an ancient monster’s multiple babies. “So, uhm… I won’t be home for a while”

The line crackled a little. Mark could hear the cogs turning in Johnny’s head. 

“Wait what do you mean?”

Mark sighed, rubbing his face. 

“Something came up, it’s uh… family business. But I’ll be going away for a few weeks. Or months. I’m not, uh, sure how long I’ll be gone”

Pause.

“What kind of family business?” Johnny asked suspiciously. “Chitti shut the fuck up, I’m trying to-  _ ow!” _

Mark ignored the sound of his friend most likely being chastised by his boyfriend for his rude words and instead bit his lip, trying to come up with a believable excuse. He really should have planned this before he called. 

“I can’t really… talk about it. I don’t know how bad it is yet, and my parents said it’d be better if we… told as few people as possible?”

He hated the way he accidentally formulated it as a question, his obvious confusion over the thing not helping his case. And Mark  _ really _ hated the suspicion that was dripping from Johnny’s voice as he responded. 

“Okay… So when are you leaving? Are you coming to get your stuff today?”

Mark pondered this for a moment. He had his phone with him, and his wallet. After his last exam he had gotten into the car without dropping off his stuff at home, so he had his laptop, the charger, and some of his school books with him. He knew where his parents hid the key to the vacation house, so he didn’t need to get that. He knew he’d have to buy new clothes as the pregnancy progressed, so getting his old ones was kind of unnecessary since they soon wouldn’t fit his belly anyway. Besides, he’d have to pose as a woman in the new town, and he had no skirts or dresses at home. 

“I’ve already left” Mark said. “And I don’t need to get my stuff, I’m fine”

“What?” Johnny sounded confused beyond measure, and in a different situation it might have been funny. “Mark… you said you don’t know how long you’ll be gone, and you’re not gonna bring anything?”

Mark only hummed, not sure how to respond. 

“Mark something is clearly going on. Please tell me? I’m kind of worried”

“I’ll try to pay my part of the rent from where I am. If it doesn’t work I’ll make it up to you when I come back” Mark said, ignoring Johnny’s question. “I have to go now, my phone is about to run out of battery. Bye hyung!”

And with that, he hung up, cutting off Johnny’s worried voice in the middle of a sentence. He felt kind of like an asshole as he stared at his screen, the silence ringing in his ears. Guilt gnawed on his stomach, but he knew he was only doing what was necessary. 

Mark pocketed his phone with a sigh, taking one last longing look at the ocean before turning to Ghourbirh. His mouth unconsciously twitched at the sight of his beloved, of the creature with the purple skin that glowed under the sunny skies. 

Although Ghourbirh couldn’t hold his hand like a human, Mark couldn’t resist the urge to extend his hand like a real gentleman would, smiling as he tried to maintain eye contact with all of Ghourbirh’s glowing eyes. 

A slim, wet tentacle slid into his palm and curled around his hand. 

“Let’s go Ghourbirh”

~

One thing Mark really should have taken into account was his increased appetite. 

It had been naive, he thought as he filled his second plate of breakfast, to think that his hunger would remain unscathed while he carried eight babies, but Mark really hadn’t given much thought to it. 

Now, two weeks later, it was becoming apparent that the babies were just as hungry as Mark, if not more, seeing as he ate twice (sometimes thrice) as much as usual. Mark also had to change his diet; foods that used to be standard, like cup ramen and sandwhiches, no longer satisfied him. He craved real food, heavier food, the type that you cook from scratch and really soothes your hungers for hours. Luckily, since he didn’t go to college for the moment, Mark had time to cook for the first time in years. 

It was difficult at first, and Ghourbirh laughed through the bond at Mark’s apparent sheepishness everytime he messed up a simple dish. But slowly, Mark learnt. Ghourbirh had it easier. She didn’t have to eat often, and when she did she just slid into the ocean by the house to hunt. Mark wasn’t entirely sure what she ate there, down in the cold murky depths, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know either. 

This morning was one of those that Ghourbirh spent hunting. 

It was 9 AM and Mark had just filled his second glass of milk and started digging in. Ever since he woke up he had felt a slight pinch in his stomach, like a faint hunger ache. Now he was on his second portion but the pain had yet to start fading. Frowning to himself, Mark shoved a spoonful of rice into his mouth, debating whether or not he should google it. He knew that googling his symptoms was a bad idea, and he completely dismissed the idea when he realised that alien pregnancies probably were quite different to human pregnancies. 

Thoughtfully, Mark caressed his belly, feeling the protruding bumps. The eggs had grown significantly, and these days Mark always made sure to wear dresses and wigs when leaving the house, since his belly was unmistakably one of pregnancy and not overweight. 

He frowned when a stab of pain, one that went a little deeper, tugged at his stomach. His spoon clattered to his plate and he stood up, mouth growing sour with fear. 

It wasn’t a spontaneous sting anymore. The pain wasn’t fading, if anything it was growing more piercing. What had been a subtle ache was growing sharper by the moment, twisting like a knife. Panting, Mark felt panic start to coil around him. He didn’t know what was happening, but his stomach was searing with white-hot pain and fear was invading all of his senses because  _ oh god what if something was happening to the babies? _

Something warm and wet started spreading over the back of Mark’s thighs and his cheeks burned. Was he pissing himself? Gritting his teeth, Mark stumbled up from the chair and looked down. 

It felt like his soul left his body. 

The sweatpants he was wearing (the only ones he’d found that somewhat fit him) were sticky, warm and dark red. 

_ Blood _

The sight made the world blur at the edges, tears clouding his vision. He was bleeding and hurting and panic was starting to set in for real now. Mark tried to swallow his breaths that were threatening to speed up. 

“Oh my god” he wheezed as he felt something travel downwards in his body. It was a weird feeling, not quite like he was pooping but not too far off. 

Then he felt the stretch and a tug on his rim and he choked because he knew this wasn’t how it was supposed to happen, he knew he wasn’t ready. 

“No” he sniffed. “No no no please don’t, please _god_ _don’t…_ ”

Fumbling over his movements, Mark tore the sweatpants and boxers off, almost getting tangled in them and falling in the process. He managed to kick them off just in time, the garment barely having time to hit the floor before his rim started widening, being forced open from inside. 

Mark cried out in pain as his hole was stretched far too wide, way too quickly. If he had been more conscious he would have thanked the gods that the eggs were slippery and soft, but in the moment he was more occupied with the agonising pain, both the physical and the mental one. His head had started throbbing too, making him even dizzier. 

Mark whimpered when, quite undramatically, the egg popped past his rim and fell onto the floor with a dull thud. He fell forward, hands gripping the table for support when another one immediately began pushing its way out. His legs were shaking and trembling, sobs racking Mark’s body as the egg slid out. 

Marks head was buzzing by now, a steady, gnawing pain at the base of his skull. It was getting harder and harder not to panic. With the eggs sliding out of him and his head feeling like it was being split apart, Mark truly felt like he was dying. 

The third egg met little to no resistance, and Marks heart shattered into billions of pieces as he realised that it was because it was broken, the slimy pieces of soft egg shells sliding down his legs. Somehow it hurt even more than the stretch, knowing that the embryo of this one hadn’t only been rejected by his body but died inside of him.

Tears were streaming down his cheeks by now, his body convulsing as egg after egg popped out of him, falling onto the floor like useless lumps of jelly. 

Mark positively collapsed after, falling face first into the pool of blood and mucus. He curled up, unable to do anything but scream in agony. The physical pain in his stomach had subsided, but the emptiness of the eggs, the knowledge that his kids had died, made up a whole new kind of pain. It was even worse. 

Mark cried, clenching and unclenching his fists, trying to see through the haze of his headache. He reached for one of the undamaged egg and picked it up. It was still slightly warm, and about the size of a small orange, only much softer and slimier. It had a pretty aggressive green colour, and Mark choked at the sight of a small creature visible through the half-see through shell. 

Mark knew he shouldn’t be surprised; early pregnancy losses weren’t too unusual, they happened to 10% of all women. He knew his own mother had suffered one before she’d successfully delivered Mark. She had described it as a heavier period, not as something this painful, but Mark guessed egg-pregnancies between sea creatures and humans were different. 

Mark carefully cradled the egg against his chest, hiccuping, snot running down his face. It hit him that he’d never asked his mother if the spontaneous abortion (as she’d labelled it) had been traumatic; he’d always assumed that since it hadn’t fully developed into a child yet, she must’ve been indifferent to it. 

Mark had never even considered it to be a miscarriage. 

A new wave of tears had Mark unable to breathe for a few seconds. 

_ Miscarriage _ . 

Such a loaded word. Eleven letters packed with the strangest and most potent pain in the world, the pain a parent feels when they lose a child. 

The headache that had been plaguing him since his tummy first started hurting was making his head vibrate, and Mark suddenly realised that it was in fact not a headache. 

It was Ghourbirh, screaming. 

Ghourbirh has never raised their voice before. Truth was, they didn’t have much of a voice. They could make noise through the bond, and shape the noise into words they learned from Mark, but they preferred to communicate without words, through impressions and visualisations. 

The scream that passed through the bond made Mark’s head fall apart, made Ghourbirh’s and Mark’s consciences rattle with the force of it. 

Mark felt Ghourbirh’s presence before he saw them. He knew they were there before the tentacle had softly slid into Mark’s hair, carefully patting him. 

Mark couldn’t see, his eyes already swollen and stinging from all the crying, but he blindly scrambled for more of his eggs, desperately trying to cradle the dead fetuses even though he knew it was useless. 

Another warm tentacle wrapped around his arm, gently tugging him towards Ghourbirh’s embrace. It was a silent plea more than anything else, a wordless urge for him to seek comfort in his mate. 

“Why Ghourbirh?” Mark whispered miserably. “W-why? Am… am I a b-bad mate?”

The entire bond jolted with Ghourbirh’s eagerness to deny his mate’s claims. 

_ No _ , they softly whispered.  _ Mark is the best mate. It is the perfect human _

Mark let himself fall limp in the tangled sea Ghourbirh’s appendages, closed his eyes and relaxed in their caresses. 

“B-but I failed” he sniffed. “I… I k-killed our children”

Once again, protests resounded through the connection. 

_ It didn’t kill them. It had bad luck. This happens _

Mark buries his face in Ghourbirh’s soft, moist skin, crying into the comforting earthy scent that he had learnt to love. 

“G-Ghourbirh” he stuttered. “Hold me?”

Confusion wafted over Mark from Ghourbirh and Mark giggled wetly. 

“No silly” he whispered before closing his eyes, visualising what he wanted. Wet tentacles roaming every inch of his body. Slipping up and filling ever opening, fucking him full of love and new eggs, giving him a chance to prove that he was a worthy mate of Ghourbirh. “Like that”

Mark wasn’t horny, it was more about the intense and intimate connection he wanted, no  _ needed _ , to feel. He needed the reassurance that Ghourbirh still loved and cherished him, even after he failed to carry their kids. 

A shiver ran through Ghourbirh and Mark smiled at them, loving the way they responded to Marks request. 

If last time had been urgent, overwhelming and desperate, this time it was languid and loving. The way Ghourbirh caressed him was smooth and impossibly soft, suction cups catching on every curve and ridge of Mark’s body. The boy whimpered quietly, cool air drying his teartracks as Ghourbirh lifted him up. It amazed him a little, the way Ghourbirh’s slippery appendages curled around his body, every limb slotting against him perfectly. There was not a centimetre of their bodies that didn’t fit, not an inch that wasn’t meant to be. 

It was a testimony to their soulbond and Mark struggled to comprehend the sheer amount of love he held for Ghourbirh in his heart. 

Mark’s sweatpants and boxers were already off, so Ghourbirh only had to wrestle him out of his maternity shirt before he was naked. Ghourbirh took her time touching Mark, making sure not an inch of his body was spared from her suction cups. By the time Ghourbirh had finished mapping out Mark’s body with her tentacles he was a damp, shivering mess, skin blooming with hickeys and bruises. 

The heat in Mark’s stomach didn’t ignite suddenly and abruptly, but slowly and comfortably, growing hotter each second.    
Ghourbirh was gentle as she stretched Mark, one tentacle delicately working the boy open, using excessive amounts of slick and careful pressure to loosen the ring of muscles. There was a calm air to the scene, as if both parties involved wanted to get more than just a quick breeding out of it. As if they both strived to make it intimate, to commit every second to memory.

One tentacle soon became two, and they slipped in and out of Mark in tandem, making the boy moan at the top of his lungs as Ghourbirh caressed his prostate. 

When Mark was impaled on Ghourbirh’s cock, it barely hurt at all. He didn’t know if it was due to the thorough prep, or Ghourbirh taking his pain away, or if his ass actually was permanently loose, but either way he had never experienced a more amazing feeling than when Ghourbirh slid home. This time, he made sure to fully enjoy every drag of Ghourbirh’s cock inside of him, every ridge and every bump that moved against his walls. 

With smooth thrusts Ghourbirh fucked into Mark, sensually hitting him deeper and deeper each time. When she finally finally stilled and the eggs started moving, Mark was delirious with excitement, drooling and whimpering. 

The breeding process was also slower this time, as if the eggs themselves felt that they should take their time. Or maybe Mark had garnered a strange time perception after being away from society and his usual schedule for so long. 

Either way, it felt like he spent hours there in Ghourbirh’s embrace, rim stretching at one egg after another, the boy slowly getting pumped full. He felt filled already after two eggs, and by the fourth he felt ready to burst. But Ghourbirh kept giving him her precious eggs and Mark took them, he took them because he was a good boy, a good mate, and he’d be the perfect mother to their children. 

Time trickled by slowly, like golden syrup, and when the sixth and final egg had settled inside of him Mark was already on the brink of passing out from exhaustion. His heartbeat had slowed down significantly, and Mark felt sluggish. He had orgasmed twice during the breeding, and every limb felt like jelly when Ghourbirh started pulling out of him. 

“D-don’t” Mark managed to stutter out, but uttering the words was so physically and mentally exhausting that he had to close his mouth again, breathing heavily as he rested his forehead against his mate.

_ Don’t pull out _ , projected into the bond.  _ I want you to stay inside of me _

Ghourbirh heeded his pleas, pulling out a little but keeping her dick inside of the panting boy. It was hot, pulsating inside of Mark’s body and Mark whimpered softly when Ghourbirh reached out with a tentacle to rub his bloated tummy, soothing the stretched skin. 

_ Mark did so well _ , she said and Mark sobbed gratefully at her words.  _ It is such a good mate, such a good mother _

Mark sighed, eyelids fluttering shut at the sweet words from Ghourbirh. Sleep was starting to cloud his mind and tentacles curled around him like a warm, fleshy blanket. 

_ It should sleep now _ , was the last thing Mark heard. 

_ Go to sleep little human _

~

Mark should have seen it coming.

One week had passed and the new eggs had taken root in his body, and it had been three weeks since he left his old life on pause. Since he didn’t know how long the pregnancy would be, Mark had applied for online courses so he could keep up with his studies while living with Ghourbirh, at least until the babies were born. The two had decided that when the babies arrived, Mark would go back to school and Ghourbirh would take care of them. Ghourbirh couldn’t understand what school was or why Mark needed it, but they understood that it was very important for Mark. Mark didn’t know what direction his life was going to take in the future, but for his parents’ and his own sake he wanted to finish college. As a safety blanket of sorts.

Mark knew the gravity of his decision to have kids with a sea monster; he’d have to leave his old life completely behind. He didn’t know if he’d be able to see his family as much, he’d be unable to have normal relationships, and unless he figured out a way to hide Ghourbirh in an apartment he’d always have to live far from the city, near the water since Ghourbirh couldn’t go 48 hours without soaking in it. 

But none of this minded him much. He hadn’t lived a very fulfilling life, and there were few things he’d deeply miss when leaving them behind. His plan had been to start working after college anyway, so the only difference would be that someone would be there to greet him when he got home. 

The thought made Mark tingle, the thought of coming home to meet Ghourbirh and their children everyday. Ghourbirh would learn their kids how to hunt, and Mark would get to see them grow and develop, these mini versions of Mark’s mate and  _ God _ , Mark couldn’t  _ wait _ .

It was all so good, too good to be true.

Really, Mark should have known it wouldn’t last forever. 

He should have seen it coming. 

When disaster strikes, it is sometimes in a big form. A tsunami, a tornado, a massive storm. 

Sometimes, it makes itself known through small things. A lipstick stain on a collar, a word uttered in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

For Mark, disaster came in the form of a knock on his front door. 

Mark frowned to himself, looking up from the book he was reading. Along with cooking, reading for pleasure was another hobby he’d taken up. The book he put down on the table at the sound of the knock was George Orwell’s 1984. Mark had stopped using his phone, getting tired of having to lie to his family, and Johnny, and let it run out of battery. It surprised Mark, how nice and interested reading suddenly was, when he didn’t have his phone. 

He threw a glance in the mirror on his way to the hall. His makeup from an earlier errand was still on his face, and so was his loose dress. He’d taken off the fake boobs, but he thought he looked female enough to answer the door. It was probably just someone asking for directions, they wouldn’t question his gender. 

Ghourbirh was in the garden, bathing in the shallow waters of the ocean, so Mark wasn’t worried about her getting exposed. 

The knocking resumed, this time louder and a little more hurried. 

“I’m coming” Mark hollered, wondering why whoever it was had to be in such a rush. 

Unlocking the door, he pulled it open and immediately felt his heart skid to a stop in his chest.

He couldn’t breathe. 

Because there, on the doorstep, fist still raised from knocking, stood the one and only Johnny Seo. His roommate, his only close friend, who’s gaze was definitely gravitating towards Mark’s pregnancy belly, expression overall morphing into looking like he was having his soul sucked out of his body.

Mark was feeling faint, thoughts spinning around his head so fast he felt dizzy. Distantly, he felt Ghourbirh express concern through the bond, but he ignored it. Tried to focus on how the hell he was going to explain this. 

For a few seconds, the two men stood there, staring at each other and wondering how to go about things. 

“Johnny” Mark said slowly, breathing steadily in and out through his nose. “I know that this… that this is not what you were expecting but I’m begging you not to freak out”

Johnny gaped and closed his mouth again like a goldfish.    
“I’m trying not to” he said, voice wavering. “But it’s kind of hard because it looks a lot like you’re pregnant. Which cannot be the case since I’m pretty sure I saw your dick that one time you didn’t lock the bathroom door. So please, explain to me  _ what the fuck is going on _ ”

Mark took a shaky breath. This was going to be impossible to explain in a way that didn’t freak his best friend out completely. He ran a hand through his hair, sighing in frustration. 

“Okay” he stuttered. “Uhm… how about…. how about you come inside? I can make you a cup of tea and we can sit down and… talk”

Johnny remained frozen in the doorway, looking so lost that Mark almost felt bad for him. Mostly he felt bad for himself though.

“Please Johnny” he tried again. “I’m still the same Mark as before. I want to… I want to try to explain this. You’re my best friend and I’m sorry I kept this from you, but you’ll understand why, I promise. Just…. can we work it out instead of… insetad of freaking out?  _ Please _ ?”

Johnny’s shocked face melted into something softer, more understanding and he took a deep breath.

“Alright” he muttered before stepping inside. “Okay Mark”

Mark felt a flutter of happiness at Johnny’s voice. He didn’t sound as scared as before. Maybe Mark’s words had reminded him that no matter what happened, he was still Mark, and Mark was one of his best friends that he’d spent a significant amount of time with the last year. 

Mark stepped aside to let his friend in, and quickly shut the door. 

“You can… you can hang your coat over there” Mark gestured towards the (undeniably naked) coatrack, blushing at how awkward and stiff he was being. This was someone he had lived with for god's sake, why was he acting like a shy schoolgirl with her crush?

Johnny nodded, thankfully not mirroring Mark’s stiffness as he walked over to hang up his coat. Mark wrung his hands, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. His stomach was fluttering with anxiety, and it felt a lot like someone was riding an escalator in his chest. 

“What kind of tea would you… would you like?” 

Johnny scratched the back of his neck. 

“Whatever you have” he said and Mark nodded and turned to walk into the kitchen. 

The minutes that went by before the water was boiling were the longest minutes of Mark Lee’s life. The silence stretched out thick and frozen between them, and Mark pretended to search through every cupboard for something to drink out of, just to avoid the sight of Johnny seated at his kitchen table.

“How’s Chittaphon?” Mark asked tentatively as he poured the hot water into two cups, watching as a deep caramel bled out from the teabags. 

“He’s fine” Johnny said before clearing his throat. “I think we’re getting serious. I went to Bangkok with him to meet his parents. Over the holidays, while you were gone you know”

Mark winced to himself, not missing the venomous edge to Johnny’s words. 

“Sorry” he said weakly, placing their teacups on the table and taking a seat across of Johnny. Mark sighed a little in discomfort at the movement and rubbed his aching belly, causing Johnny’s eyes to flicker down for a split second. “But you have to understand that I had my reasons”

For the first time since arriving, Johnny’s eyes narrowed, irises sparkling with clear annoyance. 

“Oh did you now?” he sniped, voice laced with steel. Mark bit his lip. 

“Yes I did” he said, statement muffled. “It’s… i don’t know how to describe the whole situation I’ve managed to get myself in but I thought… I thought it’d be better for you if you didn’t know. Safer. For both of us”

Johnny scoffed sourly. 

“You could have at least responded to my texts” he said bitterly. “Let me know that you were alive or something”

Johnny took a deep steady breath, and Mark looked up at his friend. The sight of his usually calm and stable friend sitting there, shivering with his fists clenched, broke Mark’s heart. 

“Do you have any idea how worried I was?”

Mark swallowed, not sure he wanted to know. 

“I thought you were dead. After that weird phone call I tried texting you so many times. In the beginning you replied a few times but then you just… stopped. I knew you weren’t with your family because I called them and they told me you were spending the holidays here. I had no idea why you’d lie to them, I didn’t know if you were pissed at me for some reason, or if your stupid ass had landed himself in danger or…”

Johnny’s voice faded away in the kitchen that suddenly felt too small and cramped for two people. 

“I’m sorry” Mark whispered. “I really am I… you have no idea. But you have to understand that the things that have happened in the last months or so have been… difficult to explain, to say the least. I’m still not sure you’re going to be able to handle the truth”

Johnny chuckled emotionlessly at this. 

“You sound like you’re quoting a bad crime movie.”

“Stop it” Mark whined, even though his heart lurched dangerously at the fact that Johnny still considered him friend enough to tease him. “I’m trying to be serious”

The short moment of mirth evaporated as quickly as it began and left the two men sitting in silence. 

“So” Johnny began. “Are you going to tell me what’s been going on? Why you disappeared? Why you’re… you know”

He said the last part while blushing and gesturing towards Mark’s pregnant belly. Mark instinctively placed a protective hand on it. 

Mark gnawed on his lip. 

“Okay” he said. “So uh… i guess I’ll start from the beginning?”

“That would be somewhat helpful yes” Johnny said sarcastically, but Mark ignored him because he was starting to feel slightly nauseous at the prospect of explaining how he got pregnant with an ancient sea creature, and he wasn’t in the mood for irony or jokes. 

“So” he said, stroking his belly with absent-minded movements. “Actually, I think it’s better if I… uh, show you”

Johnny raised an eyebrow. 

“Sounds ominous” he commented, only half-joking. 

Mark only stood up wordlessly, gesturing for Johnny to come with him. Through the bond he mentally prodded at Ghourbirh, asking if she was still in the shallows by the garden. 

She responded immediately, saying that she indeed was. 

“Okay” Mark said once they stepped out of the house and out in the garden. “I’m not going not ask you to not freak out, because you’re obviously going to. There’s no way around that”

“You’re starting to make me nervous Mark” Johnny said. 

“But you need to understand something” Mark barrelled on, ignoring his friend. Nervous? Mark was the nervous one here. He felt closer to throwing up with every step he took. “No matter what happens, no matter what you think, you can’t tell anyone. Do you understand?”

“Yeah” Johnny said offhandedly, causing Mark to turn to him.

“I’m serious” Mark said, looking into his friend’s eyes. “I don’t think anyone would believe you, but you still must not ever speak of this. Not to your family, not to Ten, not to your friends. If you do, you’re going to put me in grave danger. Me, Ghourbirh, our kids, we’re all going to be in danger.”

Johnny frowned, opening his mouth but Mark cut him off. 

“I’m going to tell you all about it soon” he reassured. “But only if you promise me to keep quiet about it. What has happened to me is not… it’s not natural. I don’t know if it has ever happened before. I don’t want to risk becoming some sort of… test bunny, or subject of research or something like that. I don’t want my family to find out, at least not through you. I don’t want to become a sensation, or be in the newspaper, or anything like that”

Johnny smiled faintly, his half-long brown hair dancing around his face in the winds. 

“You think the government would be interested in your lame ass?” he teased. “Still as confident as ever”

Mark didn’t smile. 

“I’m not joking Johnny” he said somberly and Johnny’s teasing expression morphed into something softer. 

“I know” he said kindly. “I’m just playing. I understand. I won’t tell anyone about… whatever the hell is going on.”

Mark nodded, shivering slightly in the chill breeze. The sun was hiding behind grey clouds, and the air was sparkling with anticipation. Mark felt like there was an invisible omen hanging in the air, one that hinted about the significant events that were about to take place. 

“Okay” he muttered before turning to face the sea.

He took a deep breath. 

“Ghourbirh” he called out, voice echoing over the waves. He nudged the bond. “There’s someone I want you to meet. They’re… they’re a friend”

For a moment, nothing happened. Johnny folded his arms, posture relaxed and eyes flickering between Mark and the spot Mark had pinned his gaze to.

Then, a small quiver ran through the waters, like a tiny foreboding.

Suddenly, the sea was boiling. 

There was no other way to describe it; the previously fairly still waters were sloshing and clucking as the huge alien creature rose from them, Ghourbirh’s dark rubbery skin glistening purple in the daylight. Mark didn’t turn to face his friend, allowing himself to revel in the comfort that Ghourbirh brought on for just a few seconds. The sight of the wriggling tentacles, the hundreds of glowing eyes, made Mark relax in this difficult time. Even after spending so much time with Ghourbirh, even after seeing them everyday, the sight of Mark’s lover still made his heart flutter. He felt light, like something came to rest inside of his chest, a little bird that finally could land and rest its wings.

Ghourbirh slowly made their way through the shallows and up on land, moving with a grace that was peculiar for such a big, fleshy monster. A single tentacle slithered up to Mark, curling around his chin and lovingly cupping his face, gently caressing his skin. Mark thought he heard a gasp from Johnny but he wasn’t sure.

“Hi” Mark breathed, nuzzling into Ghourbirh’s touch, gently pecking one of the pale suction cups. 

The presence of Ghourbirh filled Mark with new courage, and with great effort he turned to face his friend. The small movement felt massive and seemed to take a hundred years, his limbs heavy like lead. 

Johnny looked shell shocked to say the least. 

His eyes were wide open and unblinking, mouth agape. If not for the anxiety rolling in his stomach, Mark would have laughed at his friend’s silly facial expression. It was deathly quiet, the only sounds being the wind that was whipping their faces. Mark leaned into Ghourbirh’s warmth and security, sighing happily at the familiar squiggly movements of the beast’s many limbs. Mark was scared, but with Ghourbirh at his side he could do anything. 

“So”

His voice was weak and trembling, but it cut through the silence like a knife. His frail words were louder than bombs, and hitting harder too. 

“This… this is Ghourbirh” 

Johnny didn’t respond, his eyes flickering between Mark and Mark’s mate, looking like they were about to pop out of their sockets. Mark didn’t blame him; his entire world was probably imploding at the moment. 

“We met the day I left after the finals. They are… I’m not sure how to put it into words, but I guess soulmate would be fitting”

Johnny’s eyebrows furrowed, the man slowly breaking out of his stupor. 

“Ever since I was a kid I’ve always felt this… connection to the sea. I can’t explain it but it’s like I don’t feel at peace unless I’m by the ocean.” Mark drew in a deep breath. “The day I met Ghourbirh I realised that it… it was never the ocean. It was them. Their longing. The bond between our souls. All this time I… their soul had been calling out to me”

Mark felt a lump in his throat, and Ghourbirh slid a tentacle into his palm, wrapping it around his hand comfortingly. 

“Ghourbirh had been waiting for me for a long time. I had too, I just didn’t know it until then. And when we finally met we were… uh… very happy to see each other” Mark blushed. “I’m… I won’t go into detail but…”

“You fucked” Johnny deadpanned, expression an odd mix of disbelief and immense exhaustion as he spoke for the first time since he’d seen Ghourbirh. Mark squirmed at Johnny’s words, feeling exposed and shy.

“I… I mean it’s not… don’t say fuck hyung” Mark whined. “It sounds so… harsh”

“Okay sorry” Johnny muttered. “You made love. Go on”

Mark was feeling more and more embarrassed by the minute and decided to move on. 

“Yeah so” he cleared his throat, “I sort of got pregnant, and since it’s not how biology usually works I decided to move away to someplace where no one knew me. Where I could fake being a woman until the eggs hatched.”

“Eggs?” Johnny’s voice was uncharacteristically weak. “Jesus christ. Okay”

“Everything was going well for a while but then…”

Mark trailed off and swallowed, blinking back the tears that threatened to well up as he thought of that awful, awful day. 

“I’m not sure what happened” he said quietly, looking at the ground, avoiding the gaze of both Ghourbirh and Johnny. “I don’t know if it… if it was because of me or if it was just an accident but…”

Mark hurriedly wiped his eyes, thinking he could always blame the wind for how moist they were feeling. 

“Are you okay?” Johnny cautiously asked when Mark didn’t continue.

“Yeah I’m fine” Mark internally cursed as his voice cracked. “It’s just… it still hurts you know?”

Johnny obviously couldn’t know, since he was neither pregnant nor aware of what the hell Mark was talking about, but he nodded anyway. 

“I never thought losing a child so early in the process would be so traumatic. I thought, since it had only been like two weeks there was no way in hell anyone could already be attached to them”

Ghourbirh tightened his hold on Mark, more tentacles engulfing his trembling body. 

“They were broken Johnny” Mark whispered faintly. “Some of them… some of them weren’t even whole”

Mark closed his eyes and allowed himself to just breathe for a few moments. Tried not to freak out like an idiot at a time like this, when his best friend was expecting an explanation. Tried to force away the phantom feeling of slick and blood running down his thighs, tried to will away the memories of the pain, the images of soft, broken eggshells. 

Mark didn’t know if he stood there for days or for years, but slowly he managed to calm down by focusing on Ghourbirh’s gentle touch and soothing scent. A foreign touch to his shoulder made him jump, but he relaxed when he realised it was only Johnny trying to comfort him. 

“I’m sorry” he said shakily, opening his eyes and blinking for a few seconds until he had adjusted to the light. 

“It’s okay” Johnny said, looking a little out of place, warily eyeing Ghourbirh as if he was afraid he would attack him.

“Anyway” Mark mumbled while Johnny awkwardly rubbed his shoulder. “I have new eggs now as you can see. Ghourbirh says all of them might not survive the pregnancy, but she has a feeling it’ll go well this time”

Johnny looked up at the creature, gaze jumping between the multiple eyes that were scattered all over the swollen body.

“You can… you can communicate with… uh…”

“Yes” Mark cut off. “Through the soulbond”

Johnny raised a questioning eyebrow. 

“There’s like… like a bond between our souls. We can nonverbally communicate through images and visualisations. We can also feel each other’s emotions, it’s pretty cool”

Johnny looked disbelieving and Mark squirmed at how obvious it was that he didn’t believe Mark. 

“I can show you?” Mark offered. “You don’t have a bond to Ghourbirh, but through physical contact he should be able to communicate with you”

Johnny visibly hesitated, but slowly stretched a hand out. Mark encouraged Ghourbirh to touch him and an elegant appendage reached out and gently touched the open palm. 

For a moment nothing happened, and Mark almost started worrying he’d be unable to prove Ghourbirh’s means of communication. But then Johnny jerked violently, almost ripping his hand out of Ghourbirh’s grip. 

“Holy shit” he panted in shock, staring at Mark. 

“It probably feels weird” Mark guessed. “I already had a space for Ghourbirh’s presence in my mind, since I’m destined to be with her. But for you it must feel like she’s invading your head, right?”

Johnny nodded.    
“How do I..” he mumbled, biting his lip. “How do I respond?”

“Just think the words you want to say” Mark said. “Ghourbirh is learning more and more about human verbal communication for everyday”

Pride bled into his words as he spoke. 

“And even if she can’t understand the words you think, she’ll probably understand the intention behind them if you envision them hard enough”

Johnny nodded and closed his eyes, scrunching up his face. He looked a little ridiculous for a few seconds, then he opened his eyes again, staring in shock at Ghourbirh. 

“It responded” he said, in awe. “Mark, it understood me!”

Mark grinned. 

“Of course it did” he said, now unable to not sound boastful. “Ghourbirh might be unable to speak like us, but he understands us through our emotions and intentions. And he’s starting to learn what human words mean”

Johnny let his hand drop, eyes filled with new wonder. He didn’t look as scared anymore, just a little shocked. 

“What did you ask?” Mark couldn’t stop himself from wondering.

Johnny looked at Mark, a small smile tugging at his lips. 

“What its intentions with you are” he said easily. “I can’t say I… fully comprehend this bond between you. What it means, or how deep it is, or what it is. I don’t even understand what kind of creature this is. But I’m… I’m not worried”

Mark was quiet for a few seconds. 

“Me neither” he then spoke. “Not at all. What we have… it’s something that’s going to remain forever. Long after our bodies have been ground to dust. I don’t fully understand it either to be honest. It’s so foreign you know? Beyond what I can grasp with my time perception and view of life. But it’s… it’s bigger than us. It weighs heavier than the physical dimension of this”

Johnny chuckled quietly.

“And I thought I was the philosophical one of us” he said, eyes twinkling with that familiar spark of mirth. 

Mark just shrugged. 

“Ghourbirh has given me a new way of thinking about things” he said. “They waited for me for more life times than I can count. They’ve seen more, experienced more, felt more. This bond between us existed long before I was even born. They just waited for my arrival back to earth, waited for my soul to find its way back”

Mark smiled, heart heavy and aching with love for Ghourbirh. 

“Waiting can be an incomprehensible thing Johnny” he said. “Waiting through so many changes, so many years. I’m only going to live in this form for maybe 80 more years. But Ghourbirh will remain, live on in the physical dimension. And while I’m gone he’ll keep waiting for me, until my soul can find him in the next life it lives. We’ll always find our way back to each other”

Johnny studied his face. 

“I don’t think I fully understand” he admitted. “But I’m happy you’ve found each other. Even if it’s not going to be easy, even if you’re going to face hardships, I’m happy you’re so determined about this”   
Johnny looked away, over the ocean waves. Towards the horizon. 

“You were always so unsure of things” Johnny recalled. “Your major, what you wanted to do, what was important for you. I’m happy you’ve found something stable”

Warmth settled in Mark’s stomach. 

“Yeah” he muttered, before taking a deep breath.

“Yeah, me too”

~

Johnny stayed the night at Mark’s and they caught up with what had been going on in their lives since they last spoke (“I’m kind of scared Mark. I like Chitti so much, you have no idea, but I’ve never been in a serious, committed relationship with a guy before. What if he decides that he wants an experienced guy?” “That’s just your insecurities talking hyung. You know he loves you”). They spoke some more about Ghourbirh (“I can’t believe you’re literally living Yuta’s dream life. He complained to me just a couple of days ago about how he’s never going to experience his biggest kink”. Mark had just laughed politely and quietly pretended like the slightly too appealing visual of his gorgeous friend being fucked by his mate hadn’t popped up in his head) and when Mark went to sleep curled up in Ghourbirh’s arms, Johnny took the couch, but not without telling them they better not get it on when he was there. 

Saying goodbye to Johnny was a lot harder this time, when they were actually face to face, but Mark managed to hold his tears back as he hugged his friend. 

Johnny promised he’d visit again, and in turn made Mark promise to turn his phone back on so they could text. 

When Johnny left, Mark felt a strange sense of calm fill him. It wasn’t that he was happy to see his friend go, it was just that he was so happy that it had gone well. Johnny hadn’t cut ties with him, he had promised not to tell anyone. 

And it had been nice, talking to another human again. Communicating verbally about human issues, like college and boyfriends and meeting the parents. Mark hadn’t realised that he had sort of missed that aspect of life. 

Still, he thought as he softly kissed a spot of shiny skin between two of Ghourbirh’s fluorescent eyes, this life was definitely preferred. 

~

The labour came without warning.

Six weeks had gone since Mark had mated Ghourbirh for the second time, and one night he just woke up, sweaty and shaking and with an unmistakable pressure forming within. This time, it was a lot less painful. Partly because Mark was more stretched, partly because the joy of it being childbirth and not miscarriage overshadowed some of the agony. 

But mainly it was because Ghourbirh was there this time, placing a suction cup by Mark’s temple and drawing some of the pain out. Mark wasn’t sure they did it, but he was eternally grateful as the burning, stinging pain was replaced by just an odd sensation of painless stretch. 

Giving birth to them was physically demanding, more so than the miscarriage. The eggs had had more time to swell and become big, and Mark panted as he pushed them out one by one. His livingroom (he usually slept there since it was the only room Ghourbirh could fit in, and Mark didn’t like sleeping without his mate) was dark, faintly illuminated by the moon, laboured breaths bouncing off the walls. Mark’s skin was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, making it glisten in the cold moonlight as egg after egg slid down his trembing thighs. He clawed at Ghourbirh’s tentacles, moaning in stress and discomfort as they softly flopped onto the floor. 

Two of them were broken, slimy pieces of eggshells and small, underdeveloped fetuses dripping out of Mark’s ass. It broke his heart that all of his kids hadn’t made it, but Mark was soon distracted from the pain as the eggs started moving, tiny movements fromt he insides poking at the soft shells. 

Mark’s heart leapt in his throat as he felt something stir inside of his mind; in the mental space between his conscious and Ghourbirh’s, which had earlier been filled by silence, were now little prods and kicks. Not yet fully fledged thoughts or sentences, but rather small reminders that something had been added to the equation. 

When all of them were out, Mark carefully picked an egg up, using his fingers to cautiously tear a hole in the green membran that protected the thing inside of it, helping it out. 

They were adorable, really. 

They resembled their father, but were bonier, and thus had more pronounced features. Their tentacles were light purple instead of dark, thousands of closed little eyes were scattered all over their bodies and sharp, lizard-like heads. It made Mark remember just how old Ghourbirh were, seeing how she had changed from this skinny, reptile-like creature into the swollen monstrosity she was now. Mark smiled fondly, thinking about how his gorgeous and sexy mate had once been this tiny and cute too. 

As soon as the four younglings were out of their eggs, they gravitated towards Mark. Even though they didn’t resemble him in the slightest (it didn’t surprise Mark, since he had only carried the eggs, not actually fertilized them) they still immediately recognised him as their mother, and it calmed Mark from worries he hadn’t even been aware he was carrying. 

It filled him with the strongest, yet most tender love he had ever experienced; seeing the small, small babies, all no bigger than a human baby, crawling over his body with uncoordinated movements. Their muscles were weak, and their steps unsure and wobbly, and the blind, vulnurable things clung to Mark’s body best they could. 

It was when they started letting out frail little whines, highpitched screeches that were completely unlike Ghourbirh’s deep rumbles, that Mark broke down completely, tears filling his eyes. He sobbed, heart threatening to burst with happiness as he gathered his kids ( _ his kids! He had kids! _ ) in his arms, nuzzling them. 

A tentacle rubbing his back made him remember that Ghourbirh was there too, and Mark turned to him with wet cheeks, grinning so brightly that his cheeks hurt. 

“Look at them” he whispered. “Look how… how beautiful they are”

Ghourbirh didn’t respond, just stroke Mark’s sweaty bangs out of his forehead, trailing suctioncup-kisses over the cooling skin. 

Mark felt his children wriggle in his grip as they continued squeaking faintly, tugging at his heartstrings with every sound. Their tentacles slipped and slid over each other, trying to hold onto their mother. 

Mark placed tender kisses on their heads, smiling into the skin as he felt their hearts beat, furiously and out of sync. 

For hours, he refused to let them go, cuddling his newborn as the moon went down and the sun started rising. The warm rays of light filtered through the room, casting flickers of pure gold across the walls. Mark wanted to cry with how utterly perfect everything was. 

The bodies quivering in his embrace.

Ghourbirh encircling him from every side, embracing him. 

Yeah, Mark thought dazedly. Everything is going to be okay.

And Ghourbirh echoed back through the bond, their voice as deep and rough as thunder:

_ Everything is going to be okay _

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it this far, thank you for reading!  
> God I can't believe this is my first ever NCT fic. Tentacles and oviposition wasn't how I imagined I would enter the NCT fic world...  
> Once again, thank you to orca_mandaeru for inspiring me to write this! (I tried to credit you but I'm not sure I managed to do it properly) We need more soft monster fics in this world. Let's spread the consentacle agenda!!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, don't forget to leave kudos and comments <3


End file.
